2012 AMM Awards for Aluminum Excellence Winners

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AMM Announces the Winners of the 2012 AMM Awards for Aluminum Excellence

New York, NY, June 2012  American Metal Market congratulates the winners of the 2012 Awards for Aluminum Excellence. This prestigious honor celebrates and recognizes advancements rooted in pioneering and implementing business improvements that have delivered real change to the aluminum industry. The Awards support and reflect the extensive efforts companies have undertaken to improve competitiveness and demonstrate excellence in their operations. The winners were announced and honored at a luncheon in New York during the AMM Aluminum Summit Conference on Tuesday, June 12th.

The 2012 AMM Awards for Aluminum Excellence winners are:

Best Innovation, Technology/Process - Aoki Science Institute Co. Ltd.

Aoki Science Institute Co. sought to develop a highly efficient aluminum die-casting lubricant whose consumption would be far less than that of conventional emulsion lubricants. The result was oil-type lubricant WFR. After developing WFR, Aoki offered the innovative lubricant to aluminum die casters to improve production efficiency, saving production costs and reducing carbon dioxide generation. Aoki has been able to establish business relationships with large companies such as Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.,Peugeot SA, Ryobi Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp., reducing operational costs and improving the environmental impact at many of the companies.

Best Innovation, Product - Alcoa Inc.

Moving to ensure the fleets of new airplanes to be built over the next several decades continue to use aluminum rather than plastics or composites, Alcoa Inc. has launched an effort to develop a set of materials that would beat composites in terms of performance. Alcoa developed a new generation of aluminum-lithium alloys that provide up to 10-percent weight savings over composite-intensive planes; lower the cost to manufacture, operate and repair planes by up to 30 percent compared with composites; allow for a 12-percent increase in fuel efficiency, on top of a 15-percent improvement in efficiency from new engines; and deliver passenger comfort features, such as higher cabin pressure, larger windows and higher humidity.

Aluminum Smelter Excellence - Aluminerie Alouette, Inc.

Aluminerie Alouette, an independent producer of primary aluminum in Sept-Îles, Quebec, is an international consortium that includes Austria Metall AG, Hydro Aluminium, Investissement Québec, Marubeni Corp. and Rio Tinto Alcan. With 1,000 permanent employees and a production capacity of 600,000 tonnes per year, Aluminerie Alouette is the largest employer in Sept-Îles, the largest primary aluminum smelter in the Americas and the 10th largest worldwide. The Sept-Îles operation, on the cutting edge of technology, is constantly enhancing its manufacturing processes. Aluminerie Alouette produced its first metal in June 1992. A Phase II expansion completed in May 2005 increased annual production to 550,000 tonnes from 245,000 tonnes. That project is still considered a benchmark in aluminum smelter construction and start-up. Another expansion is in the works that would boost the companys capacity to more than 900,000 tonnes per year.

Aluminum Mill Excellence - Logan Aluminum Inc.

Logan Aluminum Inc., is a joint venture of Novelis Inc. and Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc., Since it began production in 1984, the plant in Logan County, KY, has grown to more than four times its initial capacity and currently provides aluminum for more than 40 percent of the beverage cans produced in North America. The plant last year achieved records in almost all aspects of its business, including its best-ever customer satisfaction index (CSI) rating. Measuring customer satisfaction via five componentscapability; frequency of incidents; duration of incidents; returned goods authorization rate (for both Novelis and Tri-Arrows); and preferred supplier ratingLogan ended 2011 with a record-high CSI of 164.6 percent.

Dubai Aluminium Co. Ltd. (Dubal) in the United Arab Emirates owns and operates one of the worlds largest single-site aluminum smelters, capable of producing more than 960,000 tons of aluminum per year. It supplies all of its own electric power, with an on-site generating capacity of 2,350 megawatts. Over the course of three years starting in June 2007, Dubal worked with General Electric Co. to implement a complete overhaul to update its power management and generation operations at the Jebel Ali site. The system monitors, controls and optimizes the generation, purchase, sale and consumption of electric power.

Environmental Responsibility/Stewardship - Novelis Inc.

In May 2011, Atlanta-based Novelis Inc. unveiled its companywide sustainability commitment to significantly improve the life-cycle impact of its aluminum products. Novelis has committed itself to increasing the amount of recycled aluminum input material in its manufacturing process to 80 percent by 2020 from 33 percent in 2010. Novelis is elevating sustainability as a critical element in its business model, one that it says will deliver greater economic, environmental and social rewards to the company, its customers and the world at large.

Charles Martin-Hall Aluminum Advocacy Award - Kevin Anton, Alcoa Inc.

Kevin J. Anton is chief sustainability officer at Alcoa and a member of the Aluminum Associations executive committee. Through his work and guidance, he helped the U.S. aluminum industry publish its first-ever sustainability report, showing the positive effects the industry has had over the years and forming the base point to improve further. Anton has gathered leaders from the industry, the world of recycling, can makers, fillers, and plastics and glass companies, along with others who play a part in the recycling supply chain, and encouraged them to explore ways to collaborate to increase the recycling rate of any and all materials through an initiative called Actions to Accelerate Recycling. So far under his leadership, the used beverage can recycling ratenow at 58 percenthas reversed course to show significant growth after previously declining at a steady rate.

Logistics/Transportation Provider - American Electric Power (AEP) River Operations

American Electric Power Co. Inc.s AEP River Operations offers the largest covered hopper fleet of any carrier, and the company is still growing. Whether shipping raw materials, anode coke or primary metals, AEP has barges to meet the needs of the aluminum industry. Complementing the barge operations is a fleet of more than 70 towing vessels ranging from 1,550 to 11,000 horsepower, moving more than 80 million tons of cargo for customers last year.

Scrap Supplier - David J. Joseph Co. (DJJ)

By moving closer to customers and offering around-the-clock support, David J. Joseph Co. (DJJ) has achieved distinction in its service to international consumers and local suppliers. The Cincinnati-based company opened a Hong Kong trading office in 2008, staffing it with seasoned DJJ nonferrous traders and providing 24-hour trading and administrative support. (DJJ also boasts a dozen brokerage offices in the United States and Switzerland.) Today, DJJs Metals Group is making system enhancements that will allow suppliers and consumers to easily check the status of shipments and orders and offer suppliers flexibility in choosing when they would like to receive payment.

The awards are judged by a prestigious panel which includes Martha Brooks, Former CEO Novelis, Dick Evans, Lead Independent Director, Constellium, and Robert Unger, Principal, Planned Technology Associates, Inc. as well as AMMs editorial staff.

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